Some golfers, when they don't want to bother taking a scorecard out on a round, use the number five as a reference point. Shoot a five on a hole and you're even; shoot a four and you're one under, and so-on. At the end of nine holes, you multiply by five to get 45 and then add or subtract the number of strokes over or under fives. It's an easy way to keep track of your score and you don't have to write anything down.

Greg Moore, the 22-year-old CART Indy-car sensation from Maple Ridge, B.C., thinks a lot about fives these days. But it has nothing to do with golf. It has everything to do, however, with the CART championship and the number of drivers battling for the prize.

Moore was at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in downtown Toronto yesterday, honouring a mentor, publicizing his involvement with the Player's Driver Development Program and beating the drums for this weekend's Molson Indy race through the streets of Exhibition Place, a race he would like to win after finishing fourth a year ago.

"The championship is going to come down to one of five guys," Moore was saying in conversation. "Paul [Tracy, a fellow Canadian who leads the standing while driving for the famous Marlboro Team Penske], Alex Zanardi [last year's rookie of the year who finished third in the '96 title chase and is fifth so far this year], Gil de Ferran [sixth place a year ago who's third at the moment], Michael Andretti [son of you-know-who who's won so many Molson Indy races he's lost count and who holds down fourth place going into this weekend's Indy], and me [second in the standing behind Tracy]."

It has been suggested that perhaps Zanardi's amazing come-from-the-back-of-the-pack victory in last weekend's Cleveland Grand Prix might give him a psychological advantage.

"Right at the moment," Moore said, "Alex has got the bit between his teeth, for sure. But all five of us are very intense individuals when it comes to driving racing cars. The winner of the championship will be the guy who finishes in the top five in all seven races from now on. You have to go out every race with that goal in mind.

"In Cleveland, we had a very poor qualifying position — we started 13th — but we knew we could move up during the race. And we did. We were running third when the engine broke.

"The key from now on, however, is to qualify top five and finish top five. Whoever does that will be the champion, and I hope it's me. I had a good race here last year, so I'm going to go all out to win this one and get the jump on the rest of them."

So you have five drivers all trying to qualify in the top five and then to finish in the top five. Presumably, if all five are successful, the finish to the season will see the standing as tight as it is now, in which Tracy leads Moore by a mere 11 points, 106-95 (a Canadian publicist's dream, incidentally, in which the top two points drivers are Canadians and a third Canadian, Patrick Carpentier, is the top rookie going into the first Canadian race of the CART season). Moore, then, is a point ahead of de Ferran (94), four ahead of Andretti (91) and five up on Zanardi (90).

If Moore had not suffered engine trouble and had gone on to finish third at Cleveland, he would have been leading the championship heading into the Toronto race.

"It's too bad what happened in Cleveland, but that's part of racing," Moore said. "I guess if it had to happen, the way it happened was almost perfect: Paul [who finished seventh] only got six points, so he's only 11 ahead now. And Michael didn't get any [after dropping out with motor trouble]. Zanardi and de Ferran got a lot closer, but that's the way I figured it was going to shake out anyway — the five of us going all out for the title."

Now, it's not all fun and games, this Indy-car racing business. You really have to work for your pleasure. In other words, in order to drive the car, there are certain contractual obligations that must be taken care of first.

Yesterday, for instance, Player's invited some media and special guests to Planet Hollywood to honour Neil Micklewright, vice-president, operations, for the Player's Forsythe Indy-car team, which runs Moore. Moore, Carpentier and other members of the Player's development program had to be in attendance.

Then it was off to Nathan Phillips Square at noon for the official opening of Molson Indy Week in Toronto. At 2 p.m., Moore attended a reception in support of Canadian Tire, and at 4:30 he was at MuchMusic for a TV interview.

Today and tomorrow will be much the same: golf tournaments, media interviews, receptions and black-tie gala dinners — all dues that have to be paid in order to fulfill a life-long desire to drive an open-cockpit, open-wheel racing car at top speed.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Moore said, smiling. "I love to race and I love having to do what has to be done in order to race. It's well worth it."

Meantime, the "Maple Ridge Rocket" was sporting a few days' growth of beard, although he planned to shave today. That, however, will be the last time he'll take razor to face till after Sunday's Molson Indy.

"It's a tradition I have," he said, laughing. "I shave the Wednesday before the race and then not again till after the race. I started doing this in Milwaukee [last month, when he became the youngest driver ever to win a CART race, the first of his two victories so far this season].

"It worked out all right for me there, didn't it?"